Journey to the far north
Tanya and I went to Norway! We saw cheap plane flights to the far north and booked them, just before realising that the journey there and back would be the cheapest part of the whole deal - Norway is about the only country more expensive than Switzerland. Ah well, it is also the country of the aurora borealis, nordic skiing, and strange brown goats cheese. We decided it was well worth the expense and headed to Tromsø.
Flying north into shadow.
We flew from Geneva to Oslo, where the airport was under heavy congestion due to heavy snow showers. Despite the late arrival of our flight there, the organisation at the airport was really impressive - they obviously do this a lot. There was a team of about ten snow plows that were out dealing with the snow on the runway. Machinery and people in reflective vests moved around like players in a sci-fi drama in which the world has been taken over by enormous robotic insects and it’s very cold.
We connected to another flight which took us much further north to Tromsø. The plane was late but our departure was efficient once we set off - through the de-icing equipment (more insects) and out to the very icy runway. There the procedure appeared to be to rev up the engines to full blast while the hand brake was on, then to let it go and see how quickly we could pick up speed. In a 737-300 that turns out to be quite quickly, and we hurtled into the sky and were on our way.
Tromsø's main street.
In Tromsø the temperature was -10 degrees and it hadn’t snowed since December. Ice littered the streets. Tromsø is a funky little town in a really wild location. It sits at 69 degrees north, which means it’s well inside the arctic circle. I learnt this trip that the arctic circle is the point at which there is at least one day where the sun does not set and one day where the sun does not rise each year. While we were in Norway the sunrise was at about 9.30 and sunset was at about 14.30, although there was some light on each side of those times and some really pretty dusky sunsets.
The lack of daylight does not dampen the enthusiasm of the town to be out and about in the dark. There are plenty of bars and restaurants and lots of people walking the streets both day and night. We wandered around in the darkened town, vaguely hoping that we might look up and see the aurora, but not seeing anything except the odd star amid the city lights.
Ssh Tanya, he's right behind you and doesn't look happy!
One funny thing about Tromsø - the drivers are hyper-sensitive to pedestrians on and around the streets. They will stop many metres back and wait for you to cross if you so much as look as though you might be thinking about crossing the road. Quite a few times we decided to cross a road just because a cautious driver had stopped for us and it seemed a bit rude to not take the opportunity.
From Tromsø we headed out for some husky sledding, and eastwards to stay in a cabin under the gaze of the Lyngen Alps. I'll write about those adventures soon in other posts.